Some introductory information will here be provided. Note, however, that the apparatus, techniques, or schemes described herein as existing or possible are presented only as background for describing the present invention, and no admission is intended thereby that these were heretofore commercialized or known to others besides the inventors.
Selected abbreviations are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the following description of the state-of-the-art and the present invention.    CPE Customer Premises Equipment    DSL Digital Subscriber Line    HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol    PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network    TR Technical Report (a Broadband Forum term)    UE User Equipment
Modern homes have a great many electronic devices, many of them usable for communications. Some of the communications are conducted via radio connection to an access network located outside of the home, such as a cellular telephone network. Other telephone communications are carried through a telephone wire to a traditional PSTN (public switched telephone network). In many cases, enhanced techniques such as DSL (digital subscriber line) technology are used to increase the data-carrying capacity of the telephone line. This may permit the subscriber to access the Internet or receive television and other video programming. A coaxial cable or fiber-optic cable may also be used to carry similar traffic.
In traditional telephone service, the subscriber's telephone may connect directly to the incoming telephone line. For more advanced services such as Internet access or video programming, and additional device may be needed to provide in interface between the carrier's network and one or more subscriber electronic devices. One common example is an in-home router that facilitates network connections through wired or wireless connections with the electronic devices. Another example is a set-top box that typically allows a network connection to a television set or DVR (digital video recorder). There are other such devices as well and, while many of these devices are located in the homes of subscribers, they could just as easily be used in a business office, school, church, and so on. For convenience these devices can be collectively referred to as subscriber devices.
Subscriber device that may be managed by an external server and, when this is done, there are in addition to data a great many control messages transmitted. The CPE may, for example, notify the management server that it has come on line or that it has completed performing a diagnostic test. Each CPE will also periodically “report in” so that the device manager can confirm that it is still operational. For example, for CPEs communicating with device managers according to a Broadband Forum TR-069 protocol, these messages may be referred to as Inform messages.
Another example is a mobile communications device such as a cell-phone, dongle or other wireless or cellular communications device that is managed remotely according to, for example, the OMA-DM or OMA-CP management protocol. For convenience, these devices can be referred to as UE (user equipment).
Such management communications by be sent routinely and with little problem much of the time. Given the large number of devices under management, however, there may also be times where the number of management messages from subscriber devices can overwhelm the management system. This may occur, for example, after a widespread outage when many CPEs are coming back on line. To prevent system overload, load balancers may be used that, for example, simply limit the number of HTTP applications that may occur. This method has drawbacks, however, such as dropping important messages in favor of low-priority communications. An improved scheme is clearly needed.
Accordingly, there has been and still is a need to address the aforementioned shortcomings and other shortcomings associated with regulating management messages in a subscriber device management system. These needs and other needs are satisfied by the present invention.